Clothes-line support.



c. L. BIKER, JB. CLOTHES LINE SUPPORT. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 4, 1913 Patented July 14, 1914.

THE NORRIS PETERS CO. FHOTO-LITHO.. WASHINGTON. D. C.

f, bailing it to the window or door frame; in

CARROLL L. RIICEBI, JE., OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CLOTHEfiLINE SUPPOF,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed September 4, 1913.

Patented July 14 1914;.

Serial No. 785,040.

To all IF/LOH] it may concern.

lie it known that I, CARROLL L. Riknu, Jr" a citizen of the United States, residing in New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clothes-Line Supports, of which the following is a specification.

The. ()bjQCls of my invention are, to provide a swivclcd house-bracket for endless clothes lines such that the user does not have to lean out to hang or taken in clothes,

or to clear the line when it has been tan led by winds; that the line can run perpem icular. parallel or at any angle from the housewall; that is at once cheap, simple, light and strong. without loose or delicate parts, easily worked, and adapted to be applied, without change of any of its parts, to windows and doors in frame and masonry buildings and to window and door frames of any type, without danger of splitting their stiles. sills or other members.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view showing my bracket applied to a window and swung inwardlv wit] the line perpendicular to the wall; Fig. 2 is a like View with the bracket swun down, to allow the window to be closed; big. 3 is a detail view showing the mode of attaching the frame bar to the window frame; Fig. 4 is a top view; Fig. i is a side view of the pulley arm: and, Fiq. 6 is a section thereof in the line (P-4 of big. 5.

My bracket comprises three members, namely. a frame 1. adapted to be secured in any window or door opening and to be at once support and pivot; a stock, 2, swiveled and adapted to be both axially and angularly fixed on the frame 1 and an arm 3, swiveled, and adapted to be fixed upon the stock 2 by the pull of the line 7.

The frame 1 may be made of welded or drawn pipe or tubing. Where there are a great. many buildings with windows or doors all of the same clear height I prefer to make the frame 1 Il-shapcd and attach it by both its stems 11 (Fig. l), but where the openings run irregular or their details are not standardized, I make the frame 1 L-shaped and attach it. by the stem and bar, 12, (Fig. 2). I drill holes, 13, at right angles to one another and preferably (but not necessarily) staggered, in the stem or stems 11 and ar 12; in the former for screwing or the. latter, in j shaped frames, to serve as pin-holes by which the stock 2 can be pinned fast to the bar 11, at any height and at any angle; and in L-shaped, for the same purpose and also to serve as nail or screw holes by which the bar also can be fastened to the window or door frame, bein' suitably spaced therefrom by suitable was iers.

By drilling the screw holes 13 at right angles, I adapt the frame 1 to be fastened upon the faces of the sill 4, the soilit of the cap and the face of the stile 5, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, which is the readiest mode when the window frame is substantial. When the frame is made of light boards it is preferable to lay the frame 1 in the reveal and fasten it to the edges of the sill and cap and to reveal or reveal molding with screws perpendicular to the plane of the wall and driven into the edges of the frame-members, so as not to split them, as illustrated in Fig. 3.

The stock 2 is made with a swivel head, 21, containing a guide bore by which it is swivelcd on the bar 12 of the frame 1 and drilled with pin holes 23 by which it can be pinned thereto; and a (preferably square) prismatic shank 22 at right angles with the swivel head and terminating in a stop 24. which retains the arm 3 on said shank. The arm 8 is referably cast in H- scction. to give strengt i with lightness, and has an offset eye, 31, at its free end, for

mounting a pulley-block. fl, and at its swivel end a mutilated, or cnga ement-rclease socket 32, by which it is swivelcd on and fixed on the stock shank 22; and adjacent thereto a book, 38, preferablv two-pronged,

for the bights of the clothes-line. The mutilated soc ct 32 is she ed as illustrated to the end that the user, y a simple motion, can change the location of the arm 3 from inboard and horizontal (Fig. 1) to outboard and vertical (Fig. 2), and that when in either of said positions the pull of the line will there retain and hold the arm, strained and free from rattling. In the following description axial means lengthwise of the bar, posterior toward its socket end, anterior toward its free end, and length applied to the socket faces, means, direction perpendicular to their interseo tions.

The socket 32 is formed with adjacent ax ial and posterior engaging faces 33 and 8 2, the length of the former being substantially equal to, and of the latter about one-third of the width of the stockshankQQ; an anterior relief-recess 35, adjacent to the ax'i'al face 33 and whose length equals about twothirds to threeuarters said width; an anteriouenguginp. acs 36, whose length nearly e't'iuals s'iud wi tli; and a nearly semi-cylindrical relief-recess, whose surface 37 extends perpendicularly from the anterior engaging face 36, curves toward but beyond the post'eri'or face 34 andrecurv'es' thereto;

In the practice of my invention the L- shaped' or Iii-shaped frame 1 with the stock 2 upon its bar 12 is seemed in a door or window opening and made fast to the frame,- orto the wall itself, if desired, the bar 12 being suitably s deed by washers to allow for the stock hea the stock 2 is adjusted at the desired height and inned fast, the socket 32 of the arm 3 is slipped over the finger 24 and onto the shank 22 of the stock 2; and prevented from being shaken oil by said finger; and a pulley block 6 through which an endless line 7 has been rave, is hooked into the eye 81 of the arm 3. if now the arrii be pulled inboard and lifted to horizontal the equal pulls, o-p, 0- of the line as illustrated in diagram in Fig. 5, the resultant pull c-f on the eye 31,

I which is resoluble into a force c/1.'parallel with the arm 3 and a downward force c-al applied to the eye. The force ch pushes the upper edge of the anterior engaging socket face 36 against the stock shank 22 which becomes the fulcrum about which the force -.(i acts and ulls the axial and posterior faces 38 and 84 into contact with upper and posterior faces of said shank and into equilibrium of the pressures and reactions exerted between the said engaging and shank faces; with the result that the arm 3 is immovable until the user changes its position. fter the line is full of clothes the user picks up tbebights of the line, ho'oks themrover the hook 38, takes hold of the inboard end of the arinll, disturbs the equilib rium of forces by either lifting or wiggling said ar'i'h, and having thus released it from the stock-shank 22, swings it down to and stops it in ayertichl position. .Obviously, this motion shortens the span of the line 7 ti trifle, equal .to the posterior motion of the hook 38; If the arm be carried ast the Verticul it swings freely on the siank 22, as shown in Fig. 2. if the arm be stopped when it is vertical, the engaging faces of its socket immediately engages the faces of the shank 22 and its position is thereby fixed and so remains until it is disengaged by an extraneousforce; When so fixed as illustrated in dotted lines, Fig. 5,- the pulls of the line between the eye 31 and hook 38 are in equilibrium and neutralize each other and the only active forces are the pulls of the enes of line on the hook 38,- o-p', o'-p,

.zontal and vertical whose result n -f', is resoluble into horiforces respectively, e'/t',' e'd. The latter pulls the face 3% into engagement with the upper face and the former 11113 the axial face 33 into engagement with inboard face of the shank, whose up er inboard corner may be considered a ulcrum about which the horizontal force c'/t' acts, and because it is more than double the downward force c-(Z, tends to rotate the arm outwardly about said fulcrum and to lift the hooks 38 and upwardly force and press the inboard portion of the face 36 firmly against the under full of the shank 22, and fix the position of the arm 3.

Obviously, wind is the recurring extraneous force other than the hand of the user; and wind can only deflect the line sidewisc and increase both its primary pull and the horizontal componentthereof on the arm 3 (bylifting the line and decreasing its angle r of declination with the arm) and cannot so materially alter the ratios of the horizontal and downward force component as to disengage the arm and cause it to swing reely on the shank; and this is true whether the arm be horizontal or vertical. Therefore the arm will not rattle on the shank. It will be ohscrved that the out-bent stems 11 of the frame 1, by which it is screwed to the sill or cup, or both, is somewhat longer than the shank 22 and that consequently the pull of the line is applied between the screws 8, which fasten the stem 11 and those 9 which fasten the bar 12, and there can be no twisting moment on either, and the stress is divided between them; and this relation is not altered by the fact that the stress is transmitted to them by torsion and bending strains in the bar 12.

I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent 1. A swivel bracket for endless lines com 1 prising a frame formed of a swiveling bar and an attachment stem substantially at right angles to one another and adapted to be attached to a structure in an opening through a wall thereof; a stock swiveled and adapted'to be fixed on said frame and a polygonal shank thereof substantially perpendicular thereto; and an arm swiveled on said shank; said arm being formed with a mutilated socket adapted to be engaged with said shank when said arm is horizontal and when it is vertical and to be fixed in such engagements by stress in the line.

2. A swivel bracket for endless lines comprising a frame formed of a swiveling bar and attachment stems substantially at right an ice to said bar and adapted to be attac ed to a structure in an opening through a wall thereof, a stock swiveled and adapted to be fixed on said her, a polygonal shank thereof substantially perpendicular thereto,

an arm swiveled on said shank; said arm being formed with a mutilated socket adapted to be engaged with said shank when said arm is horizontal and when it is vertical, and to be fixed in such engagement-s by stress in the line.

3. A swivel bracket for endless lines comprising a frame formed of a swiveling bar and an attachment stem substantially at right angles to one another and adapted to be attached to a structure in an opening through a wall. thereof, a stock swireled and adapted to be fixed on said frame, a polygonal shank thereof substantially perpendicular thereto, a terminal stop on said shank and an arm swiveled on said shank; said arm being fomed with a mutilated socket adapted to be engaged with said shank when said arm is horizontal and when it is vertical, and to be fixed in such engagements by stress in the line.

4. A swivel bracket for endless lines com.- prising a frame formed of a bent tube with holes therethrough, a stock swiveled on and adapted to be pinned to said frame and a polygonal shank thereof substantially perpendicular thereto, an arm swiveled on said shank; said arm being formed with a mutilated socket adapted to be engaged with said shank when said arm is horizontal and when it is vertical, and to be fixed in such engagements by stress in the line.

5. A swivel bracket for endless lines comprising a frame formed of a bent tube with series of holes at right angles to one another therethrough, a stock swiveled on and adapted to be pinned to said frame and a polygonal shank thereof substantially perpendicular thereto, a terminal stop on said shank, an arm swiveled on said shank; said arm being formed with a mutilated socket adapted to be engaged with said shank when said arm is horizontal and when it is vertical and to be fixed in such engagements by stress in the line.

6. In a swivel bracket for endless lines, a swivel stock, a square shank thereon, an arm adapted for the attachment of a line and to be swiveled on and angularly fixed by engagement with said shank; said arm being formed with a mutilated swiveling and angularly-fixing socket comprising an axially-extending face whose length substantially equals the shank width, a face extending perpendicularly therefrom somewhat less than the shank-width, a disen gagement recess being formed opposite said second named face and extending from said axial face somewhat less than the shankwidth, a face extending from said recess, perpendicular to said'axial face, substantially a shank-width, and a substantially semi-cylindrical disengagement recess being formed whose surface curves from the last named face beyond and recurves to the secend-named face.

7. In a swivel bracket for endless lines, a square shank and an arm adapted for the attachment of a line and to be swiveled on and angularly fixed by engagement with said shank; said arm being formed with a mutilated swiveling and angularly-fixing socket comprising an axially-extending face whose length substantially equals the shank width, a face extending perpendicularly therefrom somewhat less than the shankwidth, disengagement recess being formed opposite said second named face and extending from said axial face somewhat less than the shankwidth, a face extending from said recess, perpendicular to said axial face, substantially a shank-width, and a substantially semi-cylindrical disengagement recess being formed whose surface curves from the last named face beyond and recurves to the second-named face.

CARROLL L. BIKER, JR.

Witnesses:

HAROLD D. PENNEY, JOHN MORRIS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). G. 

